Fees charged to hire foreign workers are now so high many Canadian employers are “not bothering” to get migrants, says a government official. Cabinet nearly quadrupled the fees last summer, from $275 to $1,000 for every foreigner hired: “$1,000 is a lot of money”.
Attorneys warn an internet search law already passed by the Commons is unconstitutional, and sanctions “wide-sale government intrusion” on Canadians’ privacy. Bill C-13 would see warrantless searches on telecom providers though the Supreme Court banned the practice five months ago: “Computers are fastidious record-keepers”.
A Québec man injured for life after drinking and driving a friend’s all-terrain vehicle has lost a bid to claim damages in the Supreme Court of Canada. Justices declined to hear the case that left the man a quadriplegic: “He was responsible for his own misfortune”.
A telecom dispute over the number of telephone poles in Atlantic Canada has gone to mediation by federal regulators. Two companies, Eastlink and Bell Aliant Inc., could not agree on a pole count for billing purposes between the firms: ‘We were shocked’.
When Parliament passed the Employment Equity Act in 1986 the Globe & Mail celebrated it as an initiative “aimed at making the workplace fairer for women, the disabled and visible minorities.”
And yet –
In 170 years the Globe has never hired an editor-in-chief who was not a white male. Such ironies abound in Employment Equity In Canada, a snappy account of the nation’s struggle with jobsite discrimination. Officialdom never called it affirmative action – “It proved to be a polarizing term”, Equity notes – nor did the program ever approach the scope and intensity of its U.S. cousin. The fact the Act is now in its third decade with little comment from Parliament says plenty.
Equity is both celebratory and despairing. If the Canadian law became a template for legislators in Australia, South Africa and Northern Ireland, it did little good for 95 percent of Canadians exempt from it in the first place. Even for employers subject to the Act improvements have been spotty.
“The group that lags behind most is persons with disabilities,” Equity says; “Representation has always been significantly below availability.” In the first year the Act advocates calculated the disabled comprised less than 1 percent of new hires at Canada’s largest employers: Canada Post; CBC; Bell Canada; Canadian National Railway Co. and the Big Five banks. “We Canadians like to think of ourselves as very tolerant and socially progressive, but on employment equity we need to be wary of arrogance,” Equity concludes.
The Act was born from a one-woman 1983 royal commission led by Rosalie Abella, then a family court judge from Toronto. Abella travelled with a staff of one, conducting interviews with a tape recorder rather than holding formal hearings: “Participants were told they would not be quoted without their approval, but were free to discuss their issues with the media if they wished.”
Abella met with advocates, business and labour in the kind of consensus-building initiative now disregarded in Ottawa as “red tape”. The resulting Act had much promise and is credited with inspiring a string of Supreme Court judgments that made working life fairer for minorities.
And yet –
Companies with fewer than 100 employees were exempted, representing most worksites. The Act tended to benefit workers who were covered by collective agreements anyway. It did no good for the fastest-growing segments of the workforce – part-timers and the self-employed – and a provision that it apply to federal contractors awarded tenders worth $200,000 or more was rolled back to $1 million in 2013.
“Complaint-based enforcement is not suitable for people in precarious work: not only might they lack the knowledge and skills to make a complaint, they may be particularly fearful of losing their job,” writes contributor Patricia Hughes, executive director of the Law Commission of Ontario. “They may be concerned about immigration authorities and repatriation.”
The minimum wage clerk, the migrant farmworker, the nanny – all could accurately say the Act did not improve their lot. Perhaps it was asking too much, Hughes writes: “No single policy remedy will fully address discrimination in the workplace, nor will one approach address the situation of vulnerable workers.”
Readers are left to wonder: in its 171st year, might the Globe find a candidate clever enough to edit the newspaper who is not white, and not male.
By Holly Doan
Employment Equity In Canada: The Legacy Of The Abella Report, edited by Carol Agocs; University of Toronto Press; 352 pages; ISBN #9781-4426-15625; $21.91
Taxpayers were billed more than $130,000 a day for the Prime Minister’s last Arctic tour, including thousands spent by the cash-strapped Coast Guard to put two icebreakers at his disposal. Overtime by the Prime Minister’s security detail cost more than a quarter-million dollars, records show: “It’s just become a great photo-op.”
Transport Canada says it does not have the rail inspectors it needs to enforce safety rules. A senior official said the department has to date been unable to hire inspectors promised by cabinet a month ago: “It’s a bit of a challenge to attract people”.
British Columbia halibut fishermen have lost their last legal bid challenging a Department of Fisheries ruling that even staff and caucus said smacked of “political lobbying”. The Supreme Court declined to hear the fishermen’s complaint over a contentious decision on quotas: “Nobody is happy with the process”.
Air industry executives are expressing alarm over a little-noticed clause in a budget bill they warn is federal over-reach that compromises a 20-year old airports policy. The amendments were inserted in the 315th page of a 478-page omnibus bill: “Everything is thrown in there and there’s very little time to really analyze”.
Scientists say they’re relieved a cost-saving proposal to apply marine conservation methods to freshwater fish is being carefully scrutinized by a federal panel. The Science Advisory Secretariat urged caution in adopting the scheme that alarmed marine biologists: ‘The gut reaction was concern’.
Transport Canada has granted railways more than two years to comply with new licensing regulations inspired by the Lac-Mégantic disaster. The department adds it will only revoke licenses for “extreme” safety violations: “These regulations are even more concerning”.
Meat processors say changes to federal rules on migrant labour pose the “greatest threat” to the industry. A lobbyist testifying at a parliamentary committee blamed reforms to foreign worker permits for hundreds of unfilled jobs in processing: ‘We have tried to hire Canadians, unemployed youth, refugees or Aboriginals, whatever’,
Cabinet proposes new environmental controls on mercury but specifically exempts mining and smelting companies cited for releasing thousands of kilograms of the toxin. The regulations follow the breach of a mine tailings pond in British Columbia that dumped mercury into nearby waterways: ‘It is very toxic’.
Canada’s largest labour organization is crediting cabinet with terms of new federal apprenticeship loans. Regulations would see apprentices in skilled trades qualify for loans of up to $4,000 per course: “It’s a first down”.
MPs say they are wary of fraud and privacy breaches if Canadians are permitted to submit electronic petitions to Parliament. The Commons received 2,650 petitions last year, all on paper: ‘How do you authenticate they’re actually real Canadian citizens and not just bogus names?’
